Malapai Hill Viewpoint

Malapai Hill Viewpoint is a small dirt pullout on the west side of Geology Tour Road and Stop #5 on the Geology Motor Tour. It gives you a direct look at dark Malapai Hill above Queen Valley, with a broad plain and scattered rock formations around it. This is a brief stop for the geology and the view; the pullout itself is enough to see the hill.

Look west toward the dark hill. The plain slopes gently toward mountains to the south, while smaller rock formations dot the north and east. For a photo, frame the hill with the boulders or Joshua trees in the foreground. If you plan to explore on foot, the park cautions against hiking up or around the hill in high temperatures.

Malapai Hill is hard, black basalt, likely formed within the past 15 million years. That makes it much younger than the surrounding monzogranite. The basalt weathers and erodes slowly, which helps the hill stand out above Queen Valley.

An interpretive panel at the viewpoint also covers the Blue Cut Fault to the south-southwest. It extends more than 50 miles through the park; movement over the past few million years offset rock by more than four miles and uplifted the Hexie Mountains along Pleasant Valley's northern edge. No earthquake has been recorded on the fault in the past 8,000 years, though it remains active and could produce a moderate earthquake.